Boulder's West End Tavern marks 25 years

Bartender Paul Myers pours a draft beer for a customer at the West End Tavern in Boulder.
(JEREMY PAPASSO)

Once upon a time, the West End of Pearl -- although it wasn't called the West End -- was a spot with Victorian cottages and a gas station.

That time was not so long in the distant past, 25 years ago when the West End Tavern opened, creating both a memorable bar and a geographic nomenclature for that part of Pearl Street.

The bar was opened by Marc "Mini" Minion and Steve "Beaver" Goren, who had wanted a bar they could call home in Boulder.

"We had been talking about it for years," Minion says. "Boulder needed a real bar."

Then the building that now houses the West End and Jax Fish House went up for sale.

"I was working in the Caribbean," Minion says. "(Beaver) called me ... He said, 'Dude, it's time to come home.'"

Minion says they weren't really interested in serving food, but found they must have food to meet liquor license requirements, so Minion ended up manning the kitchen, turning out burgers and other bar food.

They saw a classified ad for the now iconic bar, a saloon bar that dated to the 1880s, and Minion, his girlfriend and Goren traveled to Nebraska to check it out.

The bar was in a warehouse, camouflaged by dusty boxes full of all kinds of stuff. They moved the boxes and looked at each other, Minion says.

"I said, 'I don't know much about back bars, but I do know a great piece of ass, when I see one,'" he said, referring to the massive quartersawn oak bar that has served as a focal point in the tavern, both then and now.

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Negotiations for the bar proceeded in the seller's trailer.

"She was serving her homemade Kahlua," says Minion, the driver home, who kept his lips free of the potent coffee liqueur. "Every 15 minutes (with another drink), the bar got $1,000 cheaper. We went home with them sleeping in the backseat and a beautiful bar at a very good price."

They rented a truck and took the bar straight to a master woodworker in Boulder, who restored the antique bar and created a front bar to go with it.

The West End

Doug Emerson, owner of University Bikes, opened his shop in 1985. He recalls the area as a very different place than it is now.

"It was a little seedy down there," he says. "It was a little obscure."

He was excited when Minion and Goren told him they were going to open the bar and even became a part owner of sorts.

"Beaver came over to my bike shop," Emerson says. "They didn't want more owners, but they were so close to getting it open and they needed to sell a 1 percent ownership to buy rooftop furniture. I became a 1 percent owner."

Minion and Goren opened the doors on a Friday night, not knowing what to expect.

"In 20 minutes, the place was packed," Minion says. "I had cooked for 200 people. We were out of food by 9:30. The place rocked till we checked everyone out at 2 a.m. It never stopped."

Dave Query, who currently owns the West End as part of his Big Red F restaurant group, says the bar helped out local craft brewers by selling their beer on rotating taps.

"There was a time when the West End was the highest consumer of Fat Tire in the state," Query says.

Minion confirms that they were open to then nascent craft beer movement.

"Anyone who came in (to ask us to sell their beer), we would taste it and (sell it) if it was palatable," he says. "We were (also) the only guys with Pillsner Urquell and Guinness on tap. We were also very strict. There was going to be Michelob, Bud in longneck bottles and real drinks in full-size shot glasses."

The bar's main marketing efforts involved them toting up a half keg to the roof and calling down to passersby to come in for a free beer. And there was the then-unobstructed view -- where as Query wrote in a recent newsletter patrons could "see Davidson Mesa and the cars coming down the hill into Boulder, a clear shot of Chautauqua and Flagstaff, and a glorious view of Sanitas, all without having to stand up."

Losing a friend

Query calls Goren a visionary. "He was just a brilliant businessman ... not a typical developer. He had a unique perspective on doing business. Everybody wins or nobody plays."

Query speaks of Goren in the past tense, because he died of a heart attack in 2001 on the day that his beloved Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup.

"It was shocking, but he did it in a very good way," Minion says. "He was putting on his Avalanche jersey (to go to the game), brushing his teeth. Everybody heard a thump. There he was in the bathroom. There was no pain and suffering, but it was way too early. He was 47."

But in a way Goren did end up seeing the game with his buddies, just as they all had planned.

Query, John Platt, owner of Q's and some other friends were up in Montana fishing, as the Avs won Game 6 in New Jersey. They piled in the car and drove all night to get back to Colorado in time to attend Game 7.

"On our way to pick up Beaver, an ambulance passed us. We got to his house, and he wasn't there," Query says.

They got a call that he was at Boulder Community Hospital. When they got there, they found out that Goren was dead. They watched the game with Goren and his wife in the hospital room, which coincidentally was the same room in which Query's son had been born nine years before.

"We were still with Beaver," Query says.

A second beginning

Minion continued to run the bar for a couple of years after Goren died, but the strain of keeping a busy bar going by himself began to wear on him. He approached Query, who was already running Jax next door about taking it over, with himself as a silent partner.

Query was happy to oblige. He spruced it up, added new furniture while keeping the legendary bar, and put in place a Southern-style menu with the help of chef, now partner, Chris Blackwood and added an emphasis on bourbon. The restaurant struggled a bit in its first years, as some of the old clientele departed. However, while some felt the bar had become a bit yuppified, Query says he believes he improved things.

In addition to the bourbon, the bar went from six to 20 beer taps. It's now even more a hub for special local brews.

Emerson of University Bikes still goes to the West End once or twice a week.

"Dave was the right guy to take it over," he says. "With all due respect to the old menu, the food is a lot better. The service was always good. Dave's done a terrific job of keeping the soul of Beaver's vision going with better food."

Minion feels the same.

"I feel confident those guys are doing their best to keep the West End alive and well," he says. "It's different, but it's still the West End Tavern as long as that bar is sitting there and someone wants to get a cold cocktail."

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